Homeowners concerned speed humps may slow down emergency vehicles

Orange County Public Works tells News 6 humps installed Feb. 2016

WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – Some homeowners in a neighborhood in Winter Garden voted to add speed humps to their streets to help slow drivers down.

But now,others are concerned the humps will slow down the wrong vehicles.

Frank Yokiel with Orange County Public Works tells News 6 the humps were put in place in February of 2016.

Before they were installed, he said residents had to sign a petition stating they wanted to have them.

Meetings between the county and residents were also held and a three-day study on the street that measures volume and speed was conducted.

Lisa Jones said since the first mention of installing the humps, she has fought against them.

"My husband has a defibrillator implanted. I called the fire department with that exact story. I said if something happens and I have to call 911 this is going to delay the response time for you to get to him, get him where he needs to go and then turn around and go back out over 13 speed humps to get him to the hospital," said Jones.

The stretch along Davneport Road is a little more than a mile that bears 13 speed humps.

Jones said she doesn't mind a few but 13 is excessive.

Especially if her husband needs help.

"The fire department said that they had looked into that. They had accounted for that time and that they didn't have to slow down that much to go over them," said Jones.

Richard Uhlman works along Davenport Road.

He's seen emergency vehicles travel along the road and agrees with Jones.

"They come through here for emergencies quite frequently and they have to slow down quite a bit because it's such a heavy vehicle. So yeah, you see that a lot," said Uhlman.

News 6 talked to about a dozen neighbors who live along Davenport Road.

Each new person brought a new opinion on the humps.

Kirk Conrad voted in favor of them but that doesn't mean he's a fan of them.

"There's a lot of little children out here. There are a lot of bicyclists and somebody's going to get hit. People were going 60, 70 miles an hour down the road," said Conrad.

When asked about emergency response time, he says he doesn't see it being a hindrance.

"Speed limits are 30 through here. So, no, I don't think it would hurt any emergency vehicles or slow down response time. Maybe by seconds, yes, I do know seconds do matter but I don't think it would slow it down very much at all," said Conrad.

Both Jones and Uhlman said they would like to see the humps removed.

News 6 asked the county what that would take.

Yokiel said residents would have to sign a petition and bring it to the attention of the county.

Studies would then have to be conducted to see if there was enough cause to remove the humps.

News 6 emailed and called Orange County Fire Rescue to get a comment and numbers on response times along Davenport Road.

We also asked if the humps are a factor in response time in general.

A representative with Orange County Fire Rescue told News 6 they were working to get that information for us.


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